


Heaven's Over Us

by Quandtuniverse



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angels Becoming Humans, Blanket Permission, Existentialism, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Sort Of, but it's a good thing i swear, existential melancholy, loosely inspired by Wings of Desire but not enough to make it an AU, sensory experiences, the characters are happy but the author is sad, voluntary renunciation of immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-09-23 15:53:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quandtuniverse/pseuds/Quandtuniverse
Summary: After spending millennia on Earth, Crowley and Aziraphale believe they've experienced everything that humanity has to offer, except for one thing: mortality.They don't know how wrong they are.





	Heaven's Over Us

**Author's Note:**

> When I first watched Wings of Desire a few years ago, I knew I had to incorporate it into Good Omens in some way. I never quite found the right angle on it, until Michael Sheen [tweeted this](https://twitter.com/michaelsheen/status/1151271080448921600). It pushed me in the right direction. Thanks Mr. Sheen! Hopefully, this puts a more positive spin on the premise of Crowley and Aziraphale turning human.
> 
> Big thanks to Ariel for putting up with all my whining about this fic, and to Opal for not only watching Wings of Desire with me, but also its sequel.

Aziraphale stood at the edge of a precipice.

Not a literal one. Hardly a figurative one. It was only about a four foot drop to the ground from the ledge, but in a metaphorical sense, it would be a far greater fall.

Not that there needed to be one, physically, but given the circumstances, it felt appropriate.

He was joined by Crowley, who silently sauntered up beside him, much like he had on a different wall, a whole lifetime ago. This time, instead of a quip about lead balloons and how they'd gone down, he cleared his throat.

"So you decided to go ahead, then?" he said once the angel's eyes rose to meet his. 

"I was waiting for you," Aziraphale said with a small smile. 

"You know I'd never leave you behind," said Crowley. 

"I know." Aziraphale looked down at his feet, his toes barely edging over the side. 

"Do you remember," he said, before the silence could settle between them, "the day they first ventured out into the world?" 

Crowley could hardly forget the day he'd met Aziraphale, but he knew the question wasn't about that. He recalled the vast, rolling sands of the desert, and two small brown dots making their way into the sea of dunes, one illuminated by the flames of a misplaced sword. The smell of something heavy, and wet, and the sound of the agitated air, loaded with stormcloud.

"I remember the rain," said Crowley. 

"The first rain," said Aziraphale. "The first of many."

"You say ventured," said Crowley. "That's not quite how I recall it."

"Humans don't get a choice," said Aziraphale. "Not when it comes to consequences. Or circumstances. Or mortality."

"You've taken my words to heart, then."

Crowley's hand suddenly found itself clasped within Aziraphale's, loosely, a gesture of trust rather than demand.

"Every day has been a surprise," Aziraphale said, "under the rain and the sun, walking among them, guiding them, for good or for bad."

"Or both."

"But Adam was right. It's not fair. It’s hard enough to be human without celestial interference, and as long as we have power over them, we can never understand what that feels like. And now that we're on our own, I..."

Aziraphale couldn't finish the sentence, but Crowley understood. They'd talked about it before. This talk on the ledge was a formality; Aziraphale getting his thoughts in order before committing to a choice he had already made.

Crowley squeezed his hand.

"There's still time to reconsider," he said, playing his role in this little theater.

Aziraphale looked up at him, rather desperately.

"I won't drag you down with me," he said. "If you step back, I'll step back."

"Then I'll go first," said Crowley, wrenching his hand free. Aziraphale gasped, but before he could react, Crowley had stepped off the ledge and landed on the pavement below with a rather dull thud.

For a tense second, Crowley remained crouched where he had landed. Then he slowly pulled himself back up to standing, and spun on his heel with his usual flair, throwing his arms open and beaming up at Aziraphale.

"Come join me, angel," he called out. And Aziraphale did.

  
  
  


( )

  
  
  


The first thing Aziraphale noticed was Crowley's eyes.

His shades had been knocked askew when he landed in his arms, and the two had almost tumbled over, but Crowley held firm. If there had been any lingering doubt whether Crowley had actually done it, it was dashed the moment Aziraphale's gaze met his, and he saw his normally slitted pupils were now perfectly circular.

But that wasn't what he found most striking. No, it was the color.

Crowley's eyes had always been yellow, or at least, Aziraphale had thought of them as yellow. He was now staring into a color he had never seen before, almost the same, but brighter, deeper, more expansive, somehow. Aziraphale was completely mesmerized, unable to look away.

"Your eyes," said Crowley, equally mesmerized, and for a moment Aziraphale was surprised it hadn't come out of his own mouth. Then, the spell slowly began to break as gravity took hold and Aziraphale slowly began to sink in Crowley's arms. Before he could slip free from his grasp, Crowley deposited him on the ground, one arm lingering at his shoulder.

Aziraphale's feet touched the ground, and the full weight of his fall finally sank into him. He could feel the pressure on his soles, the concerted effort of muscles, tendons and bones keeping him upright. It wasn't that the sensation was new, so much as it was magnified, amplified, unignorable. He felt his toes in his socks and his socks in his shoes and every part of his body hugged by a piece of fabric, fabrics he'd been wearing for nearly a century at this point, but which now suddenly felt more real than they ever had before. 

Next to him, Crowley was picking up his sunglasses, ready to readjust them on his face, and before he could think Aziraphale's hand darted up to stop him.

"No," he exclaimed, grasping at Crowley's wrist. Crowley stopped, pulled them away, and folded them into his pocket. 

Aziraphale's fingers stayed where they were, unwilling to break open. 

"I just," he started, attempting to explain himself, and then he realized there was no real need. Crowley quirked an eyebrow, and a corner of his mouth, and his eyes of unknown color were full of an intense tenderness Aziraphale rarely got to see so closely.

"We did it," said Crowley. 

"We did it!" echoed Aziraphale, breaking into a wide grin, which Crowley mirrored. "We actually did it!"

Crowley's wrist in his palm felt warm, warmer than it ever had, and his pulse stronger than ever before. Aziraphale loosened his grip, and two hands fell to their sides, clasped together.

"Do you feel that?" he asked.

“Your heartbeat?” 

“No,” said Aziraphale, blushing. Their little oasis of sensation was expanding, and it wasn’t just eyes and clothes and gravity, but also the sound and smell of London traffic, the white glow of sunlight behind clouds, the chilly breeze whipping past their ankles and biting at their necks. People walked past, and the air was dense with conversation and footsteps and horns beeping and, somewhere underneath it all, birds chirping. A city which had always been a dreary grey was rich with a color that was only grey because it held a little bit of everything else inside it. Like two pairs of eyes seeing each other for the first time.

Aziraphale looked around. In all his time on Earth he had never even considered that there was something more he was missing.

“It's a bit cold,” he said. Crowley nodded in agreement.

“You feel the wind?”

“It’s never been so… wind-y.”

Crowley laughed.

“To think we fought so hard to save this stupid, marvellous planet, and we didn’t even know half of it,” he said. 

“Let’s go somewhere warm,” said Aziraphale. Then a new sensation overtook him, and his stomach rumbled; a thought occurred to him that made him brighten up with glee. “Oh! We should eat something! How about cake?”

The gradually widening world opened up all at once, and they ventured out, leaving the wall behind.

  
  


...

  
  


The first bite of cake. The first sip of tea. Small delights that Aziraphale indulged in often, now with newly human tastebuds, were a heightened experience. The flavours were deeper, the textures richer, the aromas sharper and more distinct. Beyond just the elevated senses, eating to satisfy hunger was a pleasure unknown to angels. The need for nourishment imbued the food with what he could only describe as a blessing.

Hunger, humans would say, was the best spice. Aziraphale now understood what they meant. 

“We’ll have to be more careful about this from now on,” said Crowley, after a long, savourful sip of tea. 

“How do you mean?” asked Aziraphale, licking crumbs off his fork. 

“We’ve proper human bodies now. Can't just go eating everything we see as if we have bottomless stomachs, or forget to eat for that matter. We have to actually maintain ourselves now.” He stopped and looked out the window, watching people walk by the cafe. “It’s a bit funny.”

“Mm.” Aziraphale considered the remains of his dessert. “What’s funny?” 

“Our corporations were just vessels to contain our true essence. Now they're all we’ve got. It hasn't even been an hour yet, and I can't even remember what it felt like to have wings anymore.”

Aziraphale lowered his fork. It clattered gently against the plate, producing a distinctly sharp noise.

“I hadn't even considered… Oh…” He stopped and reached inwards as far as he could. Beyond the new cacophony of human senses, his angelic ones were quickly fading away. Not only could he not feel his wings, he couldn’t even miss them. “Crowley, do you think we were too hasty?”

Crowley didn’t respond at first, simply glancing at him with those bright, round-pupiled eyes. “Do you think so?” he said.

“...No,” said Aziraphale, “No, it’s just as we discussed before.” He took in a deep breath—a breath that was needed, into lungs that demanded it, into a body that was alive because it could breathe. He brushed his fingers against his cup of tea, feeling warmth with a skin that cared about temperature. He was his body now, and his body was the world.

“We’ve turned the infinite into the finite,” he said after this long, contemplative pause. “Infinite celestial forms into finite human bodies. Infinite immortality into finite human lives.”

To his surprise, Crowley grinned.

“That’s the fun part, isn’t it?” he said, shifting the way he leaned and resting his cheek in his hand, elbow propped against the table. “Getting to be human.”

Aziraphale couldn’t help but smile in return. 

“I won’t say I’m not worried, Crowley,” he said, “But I think we’ve made a good trade-off.”

“We’ll never see how far they go,” said Crowley. “There’s a time limit now. There will be new foods, new art, new music, new technology, and one day we won’t be here to see it anymore.”

“It’s just as well,” said Aziraphale. He reached out and took Crowley’s free hand. “We’ll experience it all the way they do, never knowing when it will end. And after that, well…”

“The world will be fine without us.”

“As it’s always been.”

“Adam proved as much.”

Aziraphale sighed.

“In that case, I believe there’s only one thing we must do,” he said. 

“What’s that?” Crowley asked.

“Have faith.”

Crowley grimaced. Aziraphale laughed.

And an angel, a demon, all human, marched alongside time; and heaven and hell alike would never know, how the finite became divine.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I wrote this before I watched the sequel (Faraway, So Close!) and was very surprised that I accidentally tapped into the manner of Cassiel's fall... Great Minds Think Alike I guess. Anyway it's not as good as the first movie in many ways but if you want to watch an angel-turned-human with 0 braincells making terrible life choices, it's a very enjoyable 2 hours lol


End file.
